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A Political Sociology of European Democracy

A Political Sociology of European Democracy. A Political Sociology of European Democracy. Week 5 Lecture 1 Lecturer Paul Blokker. 2. Governo Locale. Introduction. The Construction of a European Political Society • Legitimacy • Normative justifications Different views on:

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A Political Sociology of European Democracy

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  1. A Political Sociology of European Democracy

  2. A Political Sociology of European Democracy Week 5 Lecture 1 Lecturer Paul Blokker 2

  3. Governo Locale Introduction The Construction of a European Political Society • Legitimacy • Normative justifications Different views on: • Role and relevance of actors (governments, experts, civil society, citizens) • Institutions and integration 3

  4. Governo Locale Introduction 4

  5. Governo Locale Introduction Announcement: Examination - The student will be evaluated at the end of the course by means of a written essay, to be handed in at the end (deadline: 30 May, to be handed in by e-mail, by 17:00 pm); - The written essay will be of a minimum of 3.000 words, and needs to contain a bibliography with at least 10 academic resources. 5

  6. Governo Locale Introduction • Announcement: Examination • The essay needs to address a theme related to democracy in or of Europe. • The essay needs to be set up in a clearly structured way, with a clear introduction with an outline of the paper, a convincing argument in the middle part, and succinct conclusions (including own opinion). 6

  7. Governo Locale Introduction 7

  8. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Multiple Democracies I: Stakeholder Democracy 8

  9. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Stakeholder democracy (or the EU as problem-solving regime) (Eriksen 2009, chapter 4) • Legitimacy entails a ‘socially sanctioned obligation to comply with government policies even if these violate the actor’s own interests or normative preferences, and even if official sanctions could be avoided at low cost’ (Scharpf 2003: 1). 9

  10. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Stakeholder democracy (or the EU as problem-solving regime) (Eriksen 2009, chapter 4) 10

  11. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Stakeholder democracy • Without legitimacy, government would be ineffective or need to turn into a police state; • In stakeholder democracy, legitimacy is viewed in functionalist or consequentialist terms; • In other words, legitimacy is ultimate grounded in self-interest (reduction of costs; reduction of risks); 11

  12. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Stakeholder democracy • Legitimation varies with the salience of preferences that are potentially violated; • If life, liberty, property interests, or deeply held normative convictions are at stake, a stronger legitimacy is needed than when Pareto-superior policies increase social welfare without touching on salient interests (Scharpf 2003: 2); 12

  13. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Stakeholder democracy • Legitimacy historically based on one of three premises: • traditional/religious, • formal-legal, or • charisma (Weber); • In modern states, emphasis on formal-legal legitimacy (trust in institutions); • Two types of legitimacy (input-oriented/output-oriented) 13

  14. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Stakeholder democracy • Legitimacy relates to the idea that government needs to serve the ‘common good’; • Input legitimacy entails effective solutions to social problems, while output legitimacy relates to the correspondence of policy with the preferences of the governed. 14

  15. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Input vs. output (source: Trouw) 15

  16. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Stakeholder democracy • Input-oriented tradition: - shaped by ideals of participatory democracy in the Greek polis and the French revolution, as well as the Rousseauian ideal of the “general will”; - based on expressed preferences of majority (approximation of collective will) (Scharpf 2003: 2). 16

  17. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Stakeholder democracy • Output-oriented tradition: - shaped by ideas of “mixed constitutions” (Aristotle, Montesquieu); - common interest threatened by “tyranny of the majority” and political corruption - checks and balances to guarantee effective government (Scharpf 2003: 2). 17

  18. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Stakeholder democracy Three modes of governing on EU level • Intergovernmental agreement; main actors: individual states 2. Joint-decision making; main actors: Commission, Council, EP 3. Supranational centralization. main actors: Commission, ECB, ECJ - All three do not need deep forms of legitimacy (Scharpf 2003) 18

  19. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Stakeholder democracy • On the EU level, a stakeholder democracy would be about economic integration, and ‘little onus on collective tasks and obligations beyond the narrow interests and preferences of the member states’ (Eriksen 2009: 61); • In such a stakeholder approach, only weak legitimation is needed (Scharpf 2003). 19

  20. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Stakeholder democracy • The EU is a functional type of organization that emphasizes integration through law and economy, based on negative integration on which a wider consensus exists; • The main purpose is promoting the interests of the member states. 20

  21. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Stakeholder democracy • Citizenship is a form of ‘market citizenship’ (citizens as consumers, producers, users, customers); • Integration is about deepening the four freedoms (mobility of persons, goods, services, and capital); • Integration is then based on the idea of a Pareto-optimum: deepening of market integration enhances the good of all. 21

  22. Governo Locale Stakeholder democracy Stakeholder democracy • Legitimacy in stakeholder democracy is: a. derivative (from national democracies) (indirect legitimacy as sufficient); b. performance-related (unstable); c. self-interest-based (legitimacy stems from perception of enhanced self-interest); 22

  23. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance • . 23

  24. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance 24

  25. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance (Eriksen 2009, chapter 8) • The increased politicisation of the EU has brought out in sharp relief problems with legitimacy; • The most clear-cut answers with regard to democratic legitimacy problems have been: - the White Paper on Governance - the Convention on the Future of Europe 25

  26. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance LAEKEN DECLARATION ON THE FUTURE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION The democratic challenge facing Europe ... the Union faces twin challenges, one within and the other beyond its borders. Within the Union, the European institutions must be brought closer to its citizens. Citizens undoubtedly support the Union's broad aims, but they do not always see a connection between those goals and the Union's everyday action. 26

  27. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance LAEKEN DECLARATION ON THE FUTURE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (2001) The democratic challenge facing Europe They want the European institutions to be less unwieldy and rigid and, above all, more efficient and open. Many also feel that the Union should involve itself more with their particular concerns, instead of intervening, in every detail, in matters by their nature better left to Member States' and regions' elected representatives. This is even perceived by some as a threat to their identity. More importantly, however, they feel that deals are all too often cut out of their sight and they want better democratic scrutiny. 27

  28. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance • The general approach taken by the EU is one that emphasizes deliberation and participation; • The main idea seems that the indirect legitimacy provided through national representative democracies should be complemented by deliberative legitimacy on the EU level; 28

  29. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance • The trend towards governance and deliberation is part of a larger transformation in which the structural transformation of the state is acknowledged; • States are deemed incapable by themselves to govern and to provide political output; 29

  30. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance • Multi-level governance entails: 1. decision-making competences are shared by actors at different levels; 2. collective decision-making between states means loss of control for individual states; 3. political arenas are interconnected but not nested, i.e., part of one unitary political community. 30

  31. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance • State government as a hierarchical systems is then replaced, or complemented, by horizontal forms of interaction between relevant actors in the production of governance; 31

  32. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance • The idea of governance contains normative-democratically speaking three distinct dimensions: 1. Efficiency, flexibility; 2. Deliberation, consensus; 3. Openness, participation, inclusion; 32

  33. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance • EU governance has so far mostly engaged in the first dimension – efficiency and flexibility – and is in this regard ‘using’ the legitimacy strategy of problem-solving with reference to a minimalist idea of democracy as well as to deliberative methods; 33

  34. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance • Governance on the EU level is skewed because of, on the one hand, the promotion of legitimatory principles (efficiency, participation), but on the other a reduced and selective form of participation; 34

  35. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance • Eriksen thus speaks to the recourse to a form of epistocracy, based on expert reasoning, without citizens having enough knowledge of what is being decided, nor the possibility to intervene; 35

  36. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance • Important problems of MLG include: 1. Domesticated civil society; 2. Loss of citizenship; 3. Legitimacy as problem of communication, rather than inclusion and participation. 36

  37. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance EU as multi-level governance • The problem with governance has become particularly acute since the financial and economic crisis • Many observers express a concern with the lack of transparency and public influence on decisions taken regarding austerity and EU integration. 37

  38. Governo Locale Multilevel Governance 38

  39. Governo Locale European Society European democracy: European society 39

  40. Governo Locale European Society Governance and civil society • Eriksen talks about one prominent problem in the governance approach to European democracy: The ‘domestication of civil society’; - While participation is seen as important in the governance approach, there are problems with inclusivity and independence; 40

  41. Governo Locale European Society Governance and civil society Two main problems (Eriksen 2009: 162): 1. the democratic danger of co-optation and perverse legitimation Associations have a vested interest in outcomes and cannot take an autonomous position (lack of legitimacy) 2. domestication of civil society organizations Participation (by invitation) is not about institutionalising protest, but on effective policy-making 41

  42. Governo Locale European Society Governance and civil society Two further problems (Eriksen 2009: 162): 1. loss of citizenship Rationalized governance leads to a lack of possibility of individual citizens to sanction the rulers, and thus cannot exercise their democratic rights. 2. blaming the people The European Commission sees the main problem with democracy as about miscommunication and the lack of knowledge of the European citizens about the EU 42

  43. Governo Locale European Society European (civil) society (Rumford 2003) • A structural problem with European policy-making, including governance, is the participation of wider European society; • But does such a European society exist? • And if we can identify some kind of European societal sphere, what is its current role and what role ought it have? 43

  44. Governo Locale European Society European (civil) society • Interest in the idea of European society stems from the realization that while European integration in terms of economic, legal, and more recently political integration has proceeded rapidly, social integration remains relatively underdeveloped (Rumford 2003: 25) 44

  45. Governo Locale European Society European (civil) society • Another aspect is the realization that the EU is facing the enormous task of managing a transnational European space, distinct from that of its various national member states 45

  46. Governo Locale European Society European (civil) society • It can be argued that in both European social integration and the management of European transnational space, ‘society is important because of its absence’ (Rumford 2003: 25); • Without a European society, however, European governance and European democracy seem impossible; 46

  47. Governo Locale European Society European (civil) society • European integration is thus not only about the Europeanization of different national member states; • It involves the emergence of a genuine European public sphere and European civil society; 47

  48. Governo Locale European Society European (civil) society The emergence of a transnational social space entails: 1. A reconfiguration of the role of nation-states and their societies (but not necessary a demise of the state); 2. A different understanding of territoriality. Transnational space is not necessary bounded or cohesive. 48

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